City Howl Help Desk: The Case of the Phantom Parking Tickets
August 18, 2010 by Melissa89 · 6 Comments
PhillyCarShare member, Randy Wagner, received a notice saying she has a hearing scheduled for three parking tickets totaling nearly $275. After checking, Wagner quickly realized that she hadn’t used PhillyCarShare on any of the days the tickets were written – so they couldn’t be her responsibility. She called the Philadelphia Parking Authority three different times, and received different answers on each occasion. “It just takes an act of Congress to get something done,” she said, fearing that she would have to take a day off work to fight the citations. After Philly.com got involved, Richard Dickson, from the PPA agreed that the hearing notice shouldn’t have been sent to Wagner because her name isn’t even on any of the tickets. Dickson chalked the misunderstanding up to human error by employees at the PPA. “It’s a bureaucratic mess,” Wagner said of the department.
Feeling the Need to Speed in Pa?
July 20, 2010 by Melissa89 · 172 Comments
According to a study conducted by the National Motorists Association (NMA), Pennsylvania ranked 31st out of the 50 states “where you’re most likely to get a traffic ticket.” Getting the necessary data for the study was difficult because most states do not wish to release that information. “Information on how many traffic tickets are issued in each state is hard to come by because most localities, especially ticket-happy speed-trap towns, are reluctant to publicize their ticketing prowess,” said Gary Biller, the NMA’s executive director. “Because traffic statistics aren’t readily available, we looked for another trend that would allow us to infer where ticket activity is the highest,” he added – a reference to their use of Google search statistics, of phrases such as “speeding ticket” and traffic tickets” to put together their rankings. Florida, Georgia, and Nevada ranked 1, 2, and 3 as the top states to get traffic tickets in.
Pa. Trooper Killed in Crash Was Drunk
June 17, 2010 by Melissa89 · 6 Comments
Cpl. John Quigg, a veteran Pennsylvania state trooper, who was killed in a head-on collision was driving drunk at the time of the crash, test results have shown. Additionally, Quigg had already been placed on desk duty in December because of a DUI arrest, and was scheduled to appear at a pre-trial hearing later in the day. According to his attorney, Quigg was “upbeat” in their last conversation and had been accepted into a rehab program for first-time DUI offenders. A 23 year-old college graduate about to enter law school, who was driving the vehicle that Quigg hit, survived the crash.
60s Teen Idol Enters DUI Program
March 10, 2010 by Melissa89 · 5 Comments
Bobby Rydell, a ‘60’s teen idol had a BAC of twice the legal limit when his Bentley jumped a curb and smashed into a wall. He was convicted of driving under the influence, but can apply to have the charge erased from his record if he completes a program which will include a year of probation of a loss of license for two months.
Tracking Philly’s Scofflaws
January 29, 2010 by Melissa89 · 3 Comments
ABC Action News is calling out individuals known as “scofflaws” – citizens who refuse to pay parking tickets, which totals out to hundreds of thousands dollars, if not millions, that the city of Philadelphia believes is owed to it.
